Amy Shackleton

Amy Shackleton paints without using a brush. Instead, she squirts the paint on with a plastic squeeze bottle and then uses gravity - and occasionally a string - to control the dripping colors. This process takes awhile, and the 2:41 minute time-lapse shown above is from a thirty hour painting session.  The result is truly a thing of beauty. [NOTE: Music is "Sometimes We Dance" by Siktransit].

Incense

Small altar outside the Chuc Thanh pagoda (see Chuc Thanh Pagoda and Chuc Thanh III) in Central Vietnam. No incense smoke because it was drizzling rain. Does the merit from the offering continue if the incense goes out? I certainly hope so.  

Forest Xylophone

Forget for the moment that this is an advertisement from a Japanese company that makes wooden cell phone cases. This is an exquisitely crafted, clever, and lovely piece of video work (thx, Carrie).  What a cool idea. 

What Does Your Ceiling Look Like?

Architectural detail in the one of the 8,707 rooms at the Forbidden City in Beijing, China (see Forbidden City and Hinge Plate). Certainly one of the most ornate, intricate, and carefully painted ceilings I've ever seen.  

Sand Painting

As part of ArtFest 2011 in New Rochelle, the Empty Hand Zen Center hosted the participatory creation of a sand painting. I set up my camera on a tripod, hooked it to pClix intervalometer, and took a picture every 15 seconds during the sand painting. I then stitched together the 1237 images using the Image Sequence feature in Quicktime Pro 7. The result is shown above. Beautiful work of art. Powerful teaching on impermance.[NOTES: The sand painting was conceived, drawn, and directed by Carolyn Fuchs (thx, Carrie). The pClix intervalometer performed flawlessly].

Urbanized

Trailer for the new film by Gary Hustwit (see Helvetica). "When you walk down the street, everything you see has been designed." Looks really, really, good. [NOTE: Music is "The Sycophants Are Coming! The Sycophants Are Coming! by El Ten Eleven].

Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas

Beautiful gathering of auspicious beings in a side altar at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Myanmar (see Sunday at Shwedagon and This Moment in Myanmar).

All Buddhas throughout space and time,

Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas,

Wisdom beyond wisdom,

Maha Prajna Paramita

EKO

[NOTES: Just so you know, an eko embodies the Mahayana practice of transferring the merit accrued from sutra chanting. According to Suzuki Roshi, "The eko is- After reciting sutra, we-[it is] a sort of explanation of why we recite sutra". And a mahasattva is a "great" bodhisattva, one explicitly defined by his/her devotion to the salvation of all beings. And Maha prajna paramita means "the perfection of great wisdom"].

Mongolian Polaroids

Mongolian nomads see pictures of themselves for the first time. Charming video that will definitely make you smile. [NOTE:Music is "Janglin'" by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros].

Tar Sands

The basic idea here is to build a 1,7000-mile pipeline called the Keystone XL which would carry diluted bitumen (an acidic crude oil) from Canada's Alberta tar sands to the Gulf Coast of Texas. Ecologically, this is a really horrible idea. Canada's government is apparently committed to exploiting the tar sands (go here and here for more about this), while many in the U.S. have organized to stop the Keystone XL pipeline (go here to learn what you can do). Like the Soto Zen priest, Shodo Spring, shown above, who quietly sat zazen in front of the White House for several days - before being arrested along with more than 1200 other people. She says, "the way Zen practice appears in my life is twofold: sit zazen, care for the earth". I know what she means. Bows of gratitude to Shodo. Please engage. 

Arte Papel Oaxaca

In August of 2003 I visited the beautiful Arte Papel Oaxaca center in San Agustin Etla outside of Oaxaca, Mexico. That's me in the foreground with the beard (photo by S. Purata, thx). The facility, created in the old Comisión Federal de Electricidad buildings in Etla, was founded in 1997 by the Mexican artist Francisco Toledo to promote the use of local plant fibers and conserve traditional papermaking technologies. 

I bought a small journal made from chichicastle (Urtica baccifera L.) fibers in the Arte Papel Oaxaca shop, and I have carried it with me everywhere over the last nine years. Unfortunately, my pack is not waterproof and a lot of the writing in the journal blurred into emptiness during an unexpected downpour in northern Myanmar. [NOTE: This cherished booklet of handmade paper is still a permanent fixture in my shoulder bag].